A government-appointed panel tasked with reviewing the penal provisions under the Companies Act is likely to submit its report to corporate affairs minister Arun Jaitley this week, a senior official said.

Headed by corporate affairs secretary Injeti Srinivas, the 10-member panel also had the mandate to examine de-criminalisation of certain offences as part of larger efforts to ensure that courts get more time to deal with offences of serious nature under the Act.

Noted banker Uday Kot­ak, former Lok Sabha secretary general TK Vishwana­t­h­an, law firms Shardul Am­archand Mangaldas’ executive chairman Shardul S Shroff and AZB & Partners’ founder managing partner Ajay Bahl are among the members.

A senior corporate affairs ministry official said the panel is expected to submit its report to the minister this week and it is likely on August 27. Announcing the setting up of the panel last month, the ministry said it “seeks to review offences under the Companies Act, 2013 as some of the offences may be required to be decriminalised and handled in an in-house mechanism, wh­ere a penalty could be lev­ied in instances of default”.

This would also allow the trial courts to pay more attention to offences of serious nature, the ministry had sa­id. The panel is expected to suggest ways that would allow trial courts to pay more attention on offences of serious nature under the Act.